Saxo Mortals Beat Gods

2. 9. While this was happening in Hålogaland, Balder armed himself
and entered Gevar’s territory in order to claim Nanna. The king told
him to ascertain the feelings of Nanna herself and he therefore
addressed himself to the girl with carefully considered inducements;
when, however, he made no progress with her, he pressed to learn her
reasons for rejecting him. She answered that a god could not possibly
wed a mortal, as the huge discrepancy in their natures would preclude
any congruous union between them. Sometimes, too, deities were in
the habit of revoking their contracts and suddenly fracturing the ties
which they had made with inferiors. A bond between disparate
partners did not last because the status of subordinates always grew
mean beside that of exalted persons. Furthermore, plenty and
indigence lived in different tents; there were no strong obligations
of fellowship between spectacular wealth and ignoble poverty. Finally
there was no link between mundane and divine, since a quite different
origin and nature put a deep chasm between them; a vast distance lay
between the shining majesty of the gods and the human condition. By
countering him with such sophistries the clever girl wove arguments
for declining Balder’s proposal and so evaded his appeals.

2. 10. When Hother learnt this from Gevar he complained a great deal
to Helgi about Balder’s impudence. Both were unsure what should be
done and racked their brains over various plans. In time of trouble
friendly discussion does not remove hazards, but it lessens the worry.
Among other options their enthusiasm for deeds of daring weighed
most heavily and they joined in a sea battle with Balder. There you
could believe that men were contending with gods. On Balder’s side
fought Odin, Thor, and battalions of deities. There you might have
observed the spectacle of divine and human forces pitted together in
the struggle. Hother, however, clad in his sword-proof tunic, broke
through the densest formations of the gods and offered as much
violence as an earthling could to heaven-dwellers. But Thor shattered
all their shield defences with the terrific swings of his club, calling on
his enemies to attack him as much as his comrades to support him.
There was no armour which could stand up to his strokes, no one who
could survive them. Everything he fended off with his blows he
crushed. Neither shields nor helmets could withstand the impact of
his oak cudgel. Nor were bodily size or huge muscles any protection.
Consequently victory would have gone to the gods, had not Hother,
whose line of men had bent inwards, flown forward nimbly and
rendered the club useless by lopping off the haft. Immediately they
were denied this weapon the deities fled. That the gods were overcome
by men might strain belief, but ancient report testifies it. We say ‘gods’
more from supposition than truth, and give them the title of ‘deities’ by
popular custom, not through their nature.

2. ii. But Balder took to his heels and escaped. Although the victors
had hacked the enemy ships to pieces with their blades or sunk them
in the waves, they were not satisfied with defeating the gods, but laid
ferociously into the wreckage of the fleet, as if to sate their deadly
battle lust by demolishing it. In most cases success provokes
immoderation. The port which recalls Balder’s flight in its name
bears witness to the war. Gelder, king of the Saxons, who had been
killed in the same conflict, was set by Hother upon the corpses of his
oarsmen, placed on a pyre built from his vessels, and attended with
handsome funeral rites. Not only did Hother consign his ashes to a
fine burial-mound as befitted royal remains, but, beyond this,
respectfully honoured him with abundant ritual. Afterwards, in
case any further inconveniences postponed his hope of marriage, he
again put his request to Gevar and won Nanna’s coveted embraces.
Then, after rendering Helgi and Thora all the services generosity
could bestow, he brought his new bride to Sweden, where everyone
revered him for his victory as much as they joked at Balder’s flight.


- Gesta Danorum, Book III